Category: Review

Legacy of the Lost, by Lindsey Sparks

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Literary rating: ★½
Kick-butt quotient: ☆☆

Cora Blackthorn’s teenage life has been severely hampered by an untreatable condition, which triggers a severe, painful reaction any time she has physical contact with another human being. She spends her live sequestered on Orcas Island, off the coast in the Pacific Northwest, but has found solace in the world of online gaming. Her mother, however, is a globe-trotting archaeologist, explorer and… well, let’s be honest, tomb raider. [Small letters, please, to avoid copyright suits] Then, Mom vanishes, the only clue being a cryptic package she sent back to her daughter. Cora now needs to come out of her seclusion, with the help of childhood friend, ex-soldier Raiden, and travel to Rome and the catacombs under the Vatican, in search of the truth about both what happened to her mother, as well as Cora’s own origins.

For, it turns out, there”s quite a lot going on. Top of the list is that Cora is not of this Earth, being an alien embryo, part of the race who were known in ancient history as Atlanteans. who was implanted in her mother after she stole it from an ancient Catholic order, the Custodes Veritatis, and is now coming into her ancestral talents, based on the genetic material from her ancestor, an Atlantean called Persephone, which include all of Persephone’s memories, and holy run-on sentence, Batman. Yeah, it’s a lot to swallow, both on the literary and story level, and Sparks leans heavily on not one, but two, writing clichés. Firstly, the mental link to Persephone, whose memories and abilities conveniently pop up when necessary to the plot; secondly, a journal left behind by Cora’s mom for her daughter, which explains exactly the amount of information required at that point. Cora trapped in a situation with no hope of escape? Oh, look: here comes Persephone, and/or an alien artifact to get her out of trouble.

It is kinda interesting to see Cora develop over the course of the novel, but it just does not feel like a natural arc: at times, she feels like a meat puppet, not operating of her own free will. The inevitable romantic angle with Raiden feels dutiful rather than organic, and he’s entirely abandoned for the final quarter of the book, having outlived his usefulness to the plot. There is a decent sense of place, with Sparks clearly having done her research regarding Rome, and when things are in motion, you do sense Cora being involved in a grand conspiracy beyond anything she could have imagined. Yet the clunky elements repeatedly derail this progress. I think the point at which I abandoned hope, was when Cora needed a detailed map of the Rome catacombs, and her online BFF, just so happened to have spent the past few years researching exactly this. I kept expecting BFF to be part of the Custodes Veritatis, or something to justify this outrageous leap. No such luck. At least not in this volume, and I won’t be engaging with future ones.

Author: Lindsey Sparks
Publisher: Rubus Pressg, available through Amazon, both as a paperback and an e-book
Book 1 of 4 in the Atlantis Legacy series.

Good Morning, Verônica: season two and three

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★★★
“Good afternoon and good night.”

I’ll treat these two seasons as one entity. Indeed, there’s a case to be made that you could include the first season as well, given the way they are inter-connected. However, it feels that the second and third are more directly linked. If you recall, the initial series had Sao Paolo cop Verônica Torres (Müller) looking into a domestic abuse case. However, this turns out not be as simple as it appears, with the abuser being protected by a mafia-like group, whose tentacles are embedded in a selection of power structures, including the police force. Series #2 and #3 take a broader scope, Verônica looking to take down elements of the group, and end their systemic abuse of women.

The second series focuses on Verônica’s efforts against a church run by sketchy and abusive faith healer Matias (Gianecchini). He has a line in inviting poor hurt souls – albeit only attractive, young women – to stay on the church’s property, where bad stuff happens to them. His wife is firmly beneath Matias’s thumb, and Verônica is now operating more less unofficially, though with tacit help from some on the force. Her only hope is to get to the daughter, Angela (Castanho), who is lesbian because Netflix. If she can convince Angela her father is not the saint his public persona appears to be, they might have a chance to expose his crimes. But doing so simply removes another layer of the conspiracy, with the shadowy “Doúm” remaining at large.

Which is where the third series comes in, as she finds Doúm to be horse breeder Jeronimo (Santoro). Initially, he seems on her side, which is remarkably naive of her, because he set my alarm bells ringing from the very start. Doesn’t help that he looks like a creepy combination of Liam Neeson, Kid Rock and Tommy Wiseau. And that’s before we learn about the questionable relationship with his mother, or that he grew up in the same abusive orphanage as Marias. Such concerns are very justified, because it turns out Jeronimo is not just breeding horses for fun and profit. He has his eye on both Angela and Verônica’s daughter, as the next brood mares, ready to be auctioned off to rich clients.

I felt it all got a little silly and excessive in the third season, with the plot requiring events which stretched plausibility to a breaking point. It’s likely a good thing it was only half the length of the second series, at three episodes rather than six. While it ends with Verônica looking to continue the fight for justice in her extra-legal capacity, the show was canceled, and I feel that’s wise given the steadily diminishing returns. There was a nice sense of circularity, series 3 ending in a suicide, the way the very first episode opened. However, the televisual cycle of abuse was becoming repetitive, although both the second and third seasons had some interesting revelations about Verônica’s family background. While Müller’s performance held things together, it’s likely better this stopped too soon, rather than too late.

Creator: Raphael Montes
Star: Taina Müller, Reynaldo Gianecchini, Klara Castanho, Rodrigo Santoro

Special Delivery

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★★½
“Good only in car parts.”

Based on the trailer, I was hoping for something like a Korean version of The Transporter. It seemed to promise this, with Jang Eun-ha (Park) playing a courier for Baekgang Industries, a company who will transport things – mostly people, it appears – from Point A to Point B, when regular delivery methods are not possible. For example, because the passenger in question is being chased by enemies, and needs to make a quick exit from the country before he’s found. Her latest mission involves baseball pitcher Kim Doo-shik, who has blown the whistle on a match-fixing scandal, so needs to escape before those behind it get hold of him and young son Kim Seo-won (Jung).

So far, so sprightly, especially after an enthralling early sequence which showcases Eun-ha’s mad driving skills in avoiding pursuers through the narrow streets of Busan. However, the attempted pick-up of Kim Sr. goes badly awry, as he’s being chased by Jo Kyung-pil (Song). Jo is a corrupt cop who is also behind the gambling ring involved in the match-fixing. Eun-ha ends up in possession of Seo-won, and… Hang on, didn’t we write about three different versions of this story in October 2022? Yeah, for much of the rest of the film is basically another take on Gloria. Brash, beer-drinking Eun-ha is lumbered with a kid whom she cannot initially stand, yet inevitably, comes to care for Seo-won over the remaining course of the film.

Now, this isn’t all that different from The Transporter, where Jason Statham was also lumbered with an unwanted human package, in his case Shu Qi. However, there, it was the jumping off point for some cool and generally entertaining action, e.g. the classic garage fight, involving a well-oiled Statham. Here, not nearly so much, even though Jo is keen to get hold of the kid, who has a computer dongle which is key to the recovery of $30 million. While this could have been the source of multiple exciting car-chases – and as the opening shows, technically, the makers were more than capable – it feels as if director Park is more interested in how suddenly enforced maternal responsibility changes his heroine. I can’t say I’m with him there.

The concept can work, but seems incredibly trite here, and doesn’t help matters that Seo-won is a very generic child, with little personality compared, say, to Newt in Aliens, or Mathilda in The Professional. Consequently, Eun-ha’s decision not to drop the child off at the nearest police-station seems contrived for plot purposes, rather than resulting from a natural release of suppressed nurturing emotions. It’s well-enough assembled that it never becomes unwatchable, yet proceedings remain just that: assembled. It’s not without merit, since both protagonist and antagonist make for interesting characters. But it the end, Chris described it as “cute,” and that’s borderline damning with faint praise in her vocabulary – one step above “interesting.” I can’t honestly say she was wrong in her assessment.

Dir: Park Dae-min
Star: Park So-dam, Song Sae-byeok, Kim Eui-sung, Jung Hyeon-jun

Safehouse

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★★
“Safehouzzzzzz…”

I ended up having to watch this twice. The first time, I literally fell asleep. In the film’s defense, it had been a tough day, highlighted by a trip to the dentist to get a crown reattached [in related news, I’m now off Milk Duds]. But a couple of days later, I watched it again. While I did manage to retain consciousness this time, I can’t say I enjoyed the film significantly more than the dental work. This is mostly down to a script which seems to mistake being confused and borderline incoherent, with being mysterious and interesting. Not giving the audience enough information simply results in them tuning out, rather than becoming intrigued. 

Carla Perez (Delgado) lives in the dangerous border town of Mexicali, with her brother, and hoping to become a doctor. He’s playing a dangerous game, informing on the local cartel to the American authorities. This, inevitably, gets him a visit from their hitmen. In the ensuing gun-battle, he is killed and Carla, fleeing for her life, finds a tunnel in a scrap yard. Using it to escape, she surfaces on the other side of the border, in a residence being used by federal agents Caskill (Seay) and Marshall (Jenkins) as a safehouse for a key witness. However, before even meeting them, she finds herself on the wrong end of a shotgun being wielded by a wounded woman. While fleeing that, she discovers a corpse in the next room. 

It is, sadly, more or less downhill from here, in terms of a plot, with the film almost willfully concealing relevant details from the viewer. This simply allows us the chance to ruminate on the ludicrous central idea. Specifically, that the best place to hide a cartel witness is… right by the Mexican border. In a house which just happens to have a smuggler’s tunnel exiting in it. And when things go pear-shaped, don’t bother to call in reinforcements, or anything like that. Mind you, Carla’s actions don’t exactly make much sense, right from the point she pops out of the tunnel like a cork, and just kinda hangs around, rather than high-tailing it to anywhere else. It’s not as if she’s being chased by the carte… Er, never mind. 

This is a shame, since some of the other elements aren’t bad. The performances do the job, and Street seems to have a decent amount of directorial talent, shooting the action in a way that is energetic without being hyperactive. Carla isn’t an especially action-oriented heroine, yet she shows plenty of courage, and empathy for those she ends up nursing (though the medical elements are probably not a strong suit!). Other female characters do more, such as the blonde cartel sharpshooter who shows up for the final assault (top). She’s cool. In the end though, I think that my initial reaction – falling asleep – was probably an accurate assessment of the film’s overall quality, and I should have stuck to that.

Dir: Paul Street
Star: Alondra Delgado, Robert Seay, David Thomas Jenkins, Jessica Martin del Campo

Giantess Battle Attack

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★★★
“…the harder they fall.”

I was expecting this to be a follow-up to the previous Giantess films, most recently Giantess Attack vs. Mecha-Fembot! But it isn’t. This is instead, a sequel to Attack of the 50 Foot CamGirl, which I haven’t seen. However, I doubt it matters. This is much the same mix of titillation, tongue-in-cheek comedy and B-movie campiness. I think it’s safe to say, if you liked the earlier movies (and, personally, I was amused more than their quality probably deserves), this will likely hit the right spot. Director Wynorski has been doing this kind of thing for over forty years, and has no illusions about it. He has a cameo in this, complaining about the gratuitous nudity, which ends with him being pied off. And why not?

Following the events of CamGirl (I guess, anyway), the gigantic Beverly Wood (Smith) is now working in a quarry. She is trying to pay off all the damage she caused in the first film, with the help of loving boyfriend and quarry foreman Mike (Gross). A chance to escape her debts comes in the form of a $50 million PPV catfight against Anna Conda (Max), who is going to be supersized for the battle. But Beverly wants to go the other way and return to normal dimensions. Meanwhile, an extra-terrestrial threat looms, in the shape of Spa-Zor (Hall) from the planet Buxomus. She saw footage of Bev’s rampage, and travels to Earth to find an opponent who can match her size and skills.

There is, apparently, a whole giantess fetish thing. It’s not something I’m into. However, I was still amused enough over the brief (sixty minute) running time. It’s clearly not intended to be taken seriously, from the opening scene on Buxomus featuring a very terrestrial doorbell sound, and lines lifted shamelessly from Star Trek. That sets the lighthearted tone, and the film does a decent job of sustaining it thereafter. Even the obligatory sexual content is an improvement on Mecha-Fembot, played in a way closer to a fifties nudie-cutie than contemporary smut. It feels as if the cast and crew are all on the same page, pulling together, and for me, this helps paper over the obviously limited resources.

Naturally, it ends in a three-way fight, pitting Beverly and Anna against Spa-Zor at an oil refinery, which comes over like a fever dream version of a Godzilla finale. This is never going to be mistaking for high art or great cinema, and it’s certainly not for everyone. I wouldn’t argue if you said it was terrible – and, I suspect, neither would Wynorski. However, hand on heart, I was more entertained by this than The Marvels, which felt like a soulless commercial item, created purely for profit. While I’m under no illusions – a goal here was to make money – it feels like that was not its only purpose. I’d argue this is therefore closer to being true art. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off for a nice lie-down in a dark room. 

Dir: Jim Wynorski
Star: Ivy Smith, Brian Gross, Masuimi Max, Kiersten Hall

Baby Assassins 2

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★★★
“2 Much 2 Young”

After the unexpected pleasure of Baby Assassins, it’s more or less back to the same well for the sequel. Young slacker assassins Chisato (Takaishi) and Mahiro (Izawa) are still gamboling casually through life, staggering from one adult problem to the next. The latest crisis is a massive unpaid gym bill, accumulated and ignored for several years. At the bank to pay it off, they have the misfortune to be there during a robbery, and their dispatch of the perps gets them suspended from the assassins’ association, for unapproved use of their skills. As in the first film, menial work beckons, in this case as business mascots. It… does not go well. 

Bigger problems lurk, in the shape of lower-tier assassins Yuri Kamimura (Iwanaga) and Makoto Kamimura (Hamada). They want in to the association, and the benefits which come with it – I guess, pensions, healthcare and paid time off. But the only way in, is to create vacancies by killing current members. No prizes for guessing which two come into their crosshairs. It makes for an interesting contrast, with the two young men not dissimilar to the two young women. They’re close friends, yet are in many ways socially inept: there’s an ongoing plot thread about Makoto being too shy, to ask out a waitress on whom he has a crush. They don’t have quite the same food obsession though: witness the extended post-credit discussion about dumplings between Chisato and Mahiro. 

Initially, this seems like a lot of fun, through approximately the point of thebattle between the two heroines in their gigantic headed mascot costumes. However, it feels as if the makers don’t have enough ideas, beyond recycling concepts from last time: the mascot work feels like a mild spin on their equally unsuitable maid cafe jobs. It leaves things stretched thin. I don’t think the women actually carry out any genuine assassinations in the entire 101-minute running-time. There is, instead, discussion about desserts, an extended game of shogi, and a lot of references which I suspect may make considerably more sense to a local audience. This is fair enough, considering it was made for a local audience. It just left me feeling it should have come with liner notes.

The action remains decent though, being both imaginative and well-executed. The bank robbery was a particular highlight, and the inevitable climax, pitting our pair against the duo who have been hunting them, also works and makes good use of the environments. The characters are still fun to be around, and enough of the absurdist humour works, to make for decent enough entertainment – albeit a step below its predecessor. However, if there are any further installments in the lives of Chisato and Mahiro, I hope to see more rigour in the structure. The novelty value of just hanging out with them has now definitively worn off, and I’d need to see development of an actual, significant plot to convince me it’s worth my while.

Dir: Yugo Sakamoto 
Star: Akari Takaishi, Saori Izawa, Joey Iwanaga, Tatsuomi Hamada
a.k.a. Baby Assassins: 2 Babies

Blood Claws, by John P. Logsdon and Ben Zackheim

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Literary rating: ★★★
Kick-butt quotient: ☆☆☆

I picked this up without realizing I already had another book in the _______ Paranormal Police Department universe. That was Sinister: Unhallowed, part of the Black Ops PPD series. Logsdon was also a co-writer on that, so I am going to speculate he’s the “showrunner”, for want of a better phrase, while his partners run their individual franchises. The underlying theme is the Netherworld, a realm of everything from goblins to were-creatures, which runs parallel to this one, and whose residents occasionally move to ours. To keep them in check, the various PPDs exist, acting to prevent things from getting out of line.

Is in this world that Bethany Black exists. She’s a weretiger, who has always harboured an ambition to join the New York PPD. However, there’s a problem, in that her species is a seriously endangered one. As in, there are only two left. Making matters worse for species survival prospects, the other one, Mike, is gay. So she has been basically kept in bubble-wrap, until finally convincing her minders to give Bethany the chance at her lifelong goal. While being a weretiger does certainly give her certain advantages, there’s a very large gap between how she imagined and expected NYPPD life to be, and the harsh reality of working with irascible pixie partner, the veteran Max Shakespeare. Making matters worse, when Mike pays Bethany a visit, he is abducted off the street, setting in motion a frantic search and rescue mission.

Much of what I said about Sinister: Unhallowed applies here. Indeed, if you’d told me they were written by the same people, I would have nodded in agreement, as the style is similarly fast and loose – and the same largely goes for the heroine here, too. Bethany is very much inclined to act first and think… eventually, a trait which is obviously at odds with the grizzled experience of Max. Can a pixie be “grizzled”? I feel if one ever can, it’s likely him. If you think along the lines of Lethal Weapon with mystical creatures, you are probably not too far wrong.

I think this works better once Bethany gets through her training, which is so brief as to be almost pointless – it seems to consist mostly of a fiendish obstacle course. Once there’s an actual case, things settle down, and the personal nature of the victim plays into the heroine’s tendency against measured and considered response. This tends to cause more problems than it solves, especially for the supporting characters around her, quite a few of whom do not make it to the end of the book. I’m not sure what is depicted here represents a very practical way to run a police department. But on the other hand: weretigers. Complaining about realism under the circumstances seems a bit churlish. A quick enough read, this is enjoyable without a lasting presence.

Author: John P. Logsdon and Ben Zackheim
Publisher: Independently published, available through Amazon, both as a paperback and an e-book
Book 1 of 5 in the New York Paranormal Police Department series. 

Hunt Her, Kill Her

  By

★★★
“Tabling the argument.”

This is fairly sparse, unfolding entirely in the single location of a furniture factory, over the course of a single night. The central character is Karen (Terrazzino), a single mother who has just taken on the job of a cleaner and overnight security guard at the premises, in order to provide for her young daughter, who is ill on the night Karen has to start work. These issues quickly pale into insignificance – though not irrelevance – when a group of masked men enter the building, looking to hunt down and kill her. With the doors chained from the outside and the phone lines cut, Karen is entirely on her own against the bigger and stronger, but fortunately not smarter, intruders.

That’s basically it, and this is definitely not one if you’re looking for complex themes or nuanced characters. It’s straightforward survival horror, with the first half closer to stalk ‘n’ slash territory, consisting mostly of Karen being chased around the labyrinthine building, hiding out and being discovered. Things do become more action-oriented the deeper we get into things. There is a certain element of fortune in the ways she defeats some of her opponents, although this is probably necessary given the size disparity, and there’s a chaotic messiness to them which is effective. The one which stands out is the death by toilet plunger (no, the other end), which is drawn out to the point where it becomes almost blackly humourous.

That said, I did still roll my eyes at some elements, most obviously when Karen disguises herself as one of the predators. It’s an unnecessary push of believability, which would have been best forgotten. On the other hand, it is nice that the damage isn’t all one way. By the time Karen gets down to the final assailant (Oakley), she’s certainly far from uninjured, and this only escalates during their battle. If you likely will not be surprised in the slightest by the identity of the last man standing, it brings a deeply personal edge to the fight, and in addition, certainly gives Karen additional motivation. The result is considerably more of a brawl than anything, neither party giving or receiving quarter, and using whatever is nearby to their advantage.

The scripting here is so bare-bones as to be positively anorexic. For example, the backstory for Karen is put over in a way which you could either call “tersely efficient” or “laughably negligible,” depending on how charitable you might be feeling. While I lean somewhat towards the former, I’d prefer it to have done so in order to get to the meat of the matter faster, in lieu of the extended game of Hide ‘n’ Seek which occupies the first half. However, the film makes good use of its setting, and once things kick off, there’s precious little slack there either. Terrazzino gives a better physical performance than a dramatic one, but given the circumstances, that’s probably the way you want it to skew.

Dir: Greg Swinson and Ryan Thiessen
Star: Natalie Terrazzino, JC Oakley III, Trevor Tucker, Hunter Tinney

High-Rise Invasion

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★★★
“Writer’s tower block.”

This animated series bears a certain resemblance to another Japanese show on Netflix, the live-action Alice in Borderland. Both are adaptations of Japanese manga series (Alice started three years earlier), which see a number of young people suddenly transported to a lethal and sparsely populated version of their city. There, they have to figure out how to survive, and what the heck is going on, in the face of enemies human and… well, not-so human. Both shows also manage to reach the end of their first series without achieving even the slightest degree of significant resolution, though the journey to reach that point is still reasonably entertaining, and certainly does not stint on the old ultra-violence.

The fact that High-Rise Invasion is reviewed here should give you a clue to another difference. The protagonist here is Yuri Honjō (Shiraish), a schoolgirl who finds herself on top of a network of skyscrapers connected by rope-bridges. There’s no way down – except to plummet to your death. That’s a fate encouraged by mask-wearing opponents, who appear to be mind-controlled, and whose goal is to drive those without masks to suicide. Or failing that, simply to kill them. Yuri teams up with another girl, Mayuko Nise (Aoki), who has the skills necessary to survive. They seeks for Yuri’s brother, Rika (Enoki), as well as the truth about what is going on, and a way back to the normal world.

It’s certainly a concept that grabbed my attention, and the approach here doesn’t stint on the splatter, with torrents of gore. There’s a nice variety of opponents, each of whom have retained something of their original personalities, and wield their own weapons, ranging from swords to baseballs (!). The first few episodes are excellent, with Yuri struggling to find her footing in this bizarre and murderous setting, and learn the rules by which it operates. The problem is, it increasingly feels as if these were made up as the show went along. For example, sometimes the control of a mask is iron-clad and inescapable. Sometimes, it’s basically no more than giving suggestions to a wearer who retains their free-will, and feels contrived as a result.

The larger arc is not bad. The show finishes with both sides having to team up in order to defeat the near god-level creature known as “Archangel,” who basically sees all humanity as evil and is intent on purging it from the world. By the end of the twelfth 25-minute episode, however, it doesn’t feel like you have moved enormously far or learned a great deal. Yuri is still looking for her brother. We don’t know who is running the whole endeavour, and nor is anyone much closer to finding a way out. There’s a certain unevenness of tone too, with odd moments of slapstick and panty shots, that feel at odds with the grimdark approach. I was adequately entertained, yet the apparent lack of a second season generates no great sense of loss.

Written: Masahiro Takata and Tōko Machida
Star (voice): Haruka Shiraishi, Shiki Aoki, Yūichirō Umehara, Junya Enoki

A Certain Scientific Railgun – T

  By

★★★
“Third time’s the charm?”

A lot has happened in the Certain Scientific universe since the second season of Railgun. There had been an OVA movie, which I won’t review here; it is less a Mikoto Misaka story, than a team effort across the different shows, with Index, Railgun and Accelerator working together to solve a case that was too big for any one of them alone. Mother show Index had a third season, whose story played in Russia, introduced an evil Misaka clone called “Misaka Worst” and dealt with the prevention of World War III. The villain of Railgun‘s second season, Accelerator, had become an unlikely anti-hero, now working on the side of the angels – though still nasty in his usual way. He had gained a sidekick, in the form of an underage Misaka Mikoto clone. Finally, our heroines also got a third season.

All of this, except the OVA, happened within one year! Obviously, this big universe  – dare I compare it now to the size of the Star Trek universe? – had attracted more and more interest and fans over the years, so creating studio J.C. Staff decided to come back and produce more. After all, the anime business is exactly that, a business, and like any other depends on its sales. With Kazuma Kamachi, the series creator, constantly tossing out new volumes there was no lack of new material. And after watching the new seasons, including the third season of Railgun, I can come to two main conclusions.

Firstly, I love this universe. I got so accustomed to it, its characters, their behaviour, the story-lines and so on, that I will always be here when new animated content for them comes out. Though I must confess, I have only made it through the end of the 7th volume of the Railgun manga. I haven’t much time on my hands, sorry! Secondly, while I love the anime series (and will always recommend the other shows to those who liked this), probably nothing will ever beat the “sisters arc” of Railgun – S. I’m sorry, but all the other story-arcs, as good as they may be, never come close to the emotional impact this specific story-line had on me.

That said, season T is still very good, manages to raise the stakes and is recommended entertainment, if you like this kind of anime show. Once again, new characters are being introduced, though quite a number of episodes were, to me, wasted on a story-arc that was not that interesting. It was a similar feeling I had when watching the “Febri story arc” of Railgun – S. In the end A Certain Scientific Railgun stays a mixed bag – although I would also say that about many shows, e. g. The X-Files. Naturally, your mileage may vary: you may like or love some aspects or episodes of a show and not be so interested in others, then someone else may see it totally differently. That said, let’s go in media res, shall we?

The first new arc deals with the “Daihasei” festival in Academy City – essentially a sports event, where the different schools compete with each other. Nice to look at, also very funny, but hardly life-threatening. Or so you may think in the beginning: these stories have a tendency to develop from harmless to world-endangering. For the kidnapping of one of the Misaka clones, as well as Saten investigating an urban legend, as she did in previous seasons, lead to something much bigger than anyone could have predicted. Newcomers to the series, include Shokuhou Misaki, another of those rare level 5-espers, who can control people and read their minds with the help of something that looks like a TV set. She seems to have a personal beef with Mikoto. Also new is Sogiita Gunha, whose special power is that “he has guts”; this may not sound much, yet he does some impressive things with it.

In the background, people are pulling strings, since obviously this event serves as a showcase for espers. The powers that be have realized, given the events of the previous two seasons, that espers aren’t as easily controlled and exploited as they hoped. As we know, Academy City is kind of a proving ground for these dark scientific forces. This all turns out to be a trap for our favourite railgun by evil scientist Gensei Kihara. This unscrupulous scientist seems to have been heavily involved in – or maybe even the catalyst for – the experiments that endangered the students of Academy City and our heroes in season one and two. But this is the first time he appears in person. With all his knowledge and abilities accumulated from his “test subjects” he is indeed a formidable threat.

His actions are directed against Mikoto, forcing her to become a “level 6”, something only one level 5-esper  – presumably Accelerator – would be able to maintain in stable form. It would cause the person that Misaka Mikoto is, to dissolve and vanish – but not before blowing Academy City to kingdom come. Our heroine finds herself helpless, and in order to be saved needs all her friends. That’s one of the things I love about the show: it’s generally a team effort. Even when you have a story arc like Railgun S, when Mikoto thought she had to do it all alone, she realizes it is good to have a little help. Everybody contributes according to his or her abilities to the bigger whole. Okay, Accelerator is absent, but he was probably too busy starring in his own spin-off series, A Certain Scientific Accelerator. And they are all so damn noble:

  • Touma, who never hesitates to put his life on the line for everyone, but especially for Mikoto,
  • Kuroko, who comes out of her wheelchair to fight a dangerous hench-girl
  • Mitori Kouzaku, who can create some kind of “evil clay doll” versions of herself and works for Gensei Kihara
  • Kongou, who ends up in hospital for helping Mikoto, and has become a cool, noble character compared to the arrogant school princess who arrived in season one
  • Shohuko Misuki, who almost loses her life – though less for Mikoto than saving the entire city.
  • Sogiita, who is such a cool, sympathetic hero, giving all he can. If he starts to bleed… well, he realizes he “just has to put some more guts into it”!

What results is a “three-front war” with all those different protagonists fighting to prevent the Gensei Kihara’s mad-cap evil plan. Saving the world – and Misaka – is not a simple thing, and as seems to have become a tradition for the series, after such an almost “overkill” arc, the next story it delivers is inevitably less interesting. It can’t hope to compete with what has happened before, though I personally have made my peace with this. After all the excitement, you can use something to calm you down. Unfortunately, those episodes feel like a chore for me as they come across like lacklustre time fillers. Again: I guess you have to eat the vegetables, too, after you had your T-bone steak!

Time is spent on the “Dreamranker” Indian Poker game cards arc. When put on your forehead, these can make you relive the dream whoever made the card has dreamed before. While the concept itself is interesting, not enough is done with it. After having saved Mikoto from becoming a level 6, this is just “nice”, and a little bland. For example, an entire episode is wasted on Mikoto and another girl seeking a card that is said to be “the bust-upper” –  that is supposed to do what the name suggests. Though, the story takes a curve (as it were!) with a mysterious girl Kuriby Ryouko making a human-looking machine to help her sick mother. It results in a clash not only between the girl and her machine, who wants to take over her life, but also Mikoto and a girl-gang called “Scavenger”. In the end it’s up for our favourite railgun again, to battle against the over-powerful android that threatens to destroy Academy City.

While the finale is again visually fulfilling and full of action, it can’t quite match up to the first story-arc. But then, Mikoto was more the victim of circumstances there, who had to be saved by her friends. In the second, it’s her fighting her own battles again. The last episode feels again like treading water after the big battle. So we get the usual “girly stuff” like villainesses undressing each other (face it, the show is not above the usual titillation!), girls lying in hospital, and the usual confusion with Kongou meeting one of the Misaka clones.

Overall, you leave the third season with a satisfied feeling of having had another good meal. You know what you came for, and you got it. I can’t watch the ending without being slightly touched, and feeling it was already a small miracle the show would come back after all those years. Now it’s over – or at least, in another hiatus until the powers that be decide the time is right for a fourth season. Until then, I  agree with Mikoto and her friends, when the show’s catchphrase is delivered: “There never is a dull moment in this city!” And they’re right; there certainly never is!

Dir: Tatsuyuki Nagai and others
Star (voice): Rina Satō, Satomi Arai, Aki Toyosaki, Kanae Itō